News

Preview: Hands On with Sins of a Dark Age

Imagine looking down from above on a game of League of Legends, Dota 2, or Heroes of Newerth as two teams of five fantasy heroes clash amidst waves of AI-controlled soldiers. It's not looking good for the Centaur -- he's being ganged up on by a Spider Queen with her spiderling minions and a four-armed Abomination. Without help, he'll never escape alive -- so, like a benevolent god, you cast a spell giving the Centaur a burst of super speed that allows him to trot out of his pursuers' reach.

His pursuers are still hot on his tail, but he manages to link up with an ally, the burly plant-beast Mandrake, at the nearest tower. There, you cast a spell to heal the Centaur and another to summon a trio of archers to the field. You link the archers to the Mandrake, and they follow him as they counter-attack and corner the Spider Queen -- but you're needed elsewhere, as the other three heroes under your protection are pushing into the enemy base!

Commander 2.0

Ironclad has moved away from base building and resource gathering to free up the Commander player's attention for more active support of his hero teammates.

That's a glimpse of the Commander role of Sins of a Dark Age as it exists now. When I got my first look at it at GDC a few months ago, the concept was to put a traditional real-time strategy player, complete with base-building and resource gathering, on the same battlefield with five teammates who are controlling one unit apiece as they play a MOBA-style game. Since then the Commander's gotten a bit of a revamp -- developer Ironclad has moved away from base building and resource gathering to free up the Commander player's attention for more active support of his hero teammates. I still commanded units, RTS style, but it's a small number compared to the MOBA-style creep waves, which initially were going to be all player-controlled. Gold is still important, but it's collected by holding territory (similar to Company of Heroes) and killing enemies rather than mining.

"Go my pretties! Kill! Kill!"

For these preview games my Commander powers came preselected, and were all low-level abilities. In the real deal, Commanders will have the opportunity to arrange their own "deck" of powers, much like in Magic: The Gathering or another customizable card game, and bring those into a match with them. Abilities range from basic unit summoning to building new towers and calling in an enormous dragon. Gold activates those powers, much like a MOBA hero buys gear from a shop -- and yes, you can sell abilities and buy different ones from your deck if you want to change things up midway through a match. Ironclad says that each power card will be purchasable from Sins of a Dark Age's store, but anything that affects gameplay (i.e. everything but cosmetic skins) can be earned with experience points, and that the plan is to be more generous with its in-game currency pricing than the typical free-to-play game.

To enable my ability to summon knights, I had to first upgrade to level four military strength, plus three additional levels of either magic or support.

Both sides start with buildings representing military, magic, and support. Commanders purchase upgrades at these buildings to both strengthen creep waves and unlock stronger abilities. For example, to enable my ability to summon knights, my most powerful and fastest units, I had to first upgrade to level four military strength, plus three additional levels of either magic or support. It takes time, but it also ensures that heroes would have plenty of time to level up and prevent me from overwhelming them with units. Those buildings also represented my weak points -- if the enemy could break into my team's base and destroy one, they could cripple my ability to unlock certain powerful abilities. That's the kind of thing that would be worth a suicide run to accomplish.

Boots on the Ground

So while I wasn't able to marshal a huge, StarCraft-style army and march across the map to overwhelm the enemy heroes, I found that my small band of summonable footsoldiers and archers -- generally no more than 10 units at once -- could be an effective force for capturing resource points, swarming towers, and supporting heroes against the enemy. I quickly learned the hard way to keep my summoned troops away from enemy heroes like the Plaguebringer, who specializes in area-of-effect (AoE) damage that can quickly wipe out entire groups.

Ok, here's the plan: you guys are fodder.

Using another summonable unit, the Captain, I could create a mobile summoning zone (which is usually limited to around structures or capture points) that allowed me to replenish my losses as soon as the cooldowns on my summoning powers expired, letting me operate behind enemy lines. That is, until an enemy hero got wise and targeted my Captain first.

Five heroes roaming the field getting in trouble at once is a lot to keep track of.

Meanwhile my teammates were calling out for heals, speed and armor buffs, or Pillage (which increases damage against buildings), and I'd jump around the map doling out divine intervention to tip the battle in their favor. Five heroes roaming the field getting in trouble at once is a lot to keep track of, though, so there were more than a few dropped balls. Being everywhere at once, it turns out, is a tough job.

Course Correction

Why all the changes? Ironclad has weekly play sessions where the entire team drops everything to play for several hours. The team then talks out what kept them from having the most fun possible with the current version over lunch and spends the week fixing it. It will likely see many more revisions by the time it goes into open beta (at a date Ironclad has yet to decide upon), since there are obviously very few sacred cows for this design team. If something's not working, or they think of something better, there's little hesitation to change course in favor of better gameplay.

Take good care of these: they're the only ones you've got.

Especially now that the originally proposed ability to select friendly heroes and give RTS-style optional "orders" has been replaced by a more traditional pinging system for signalling attacks and defenses, I'd argue that the name Commander doesn't really suit him anymore -- he's more of a guardian angel, or a minor deity influencing the course of battle. But whatever it's called, it'll likely be the role I'll gravitate toward.

For more perspective on how it plays from the ground level as a hero, check out Anthony Gallegos' Sins of a Dark Age preview over at IGN.

Spy Guy says: Sounds like my kind of role, too. I've got some experience in this area, since my network of real-life spy satellites lets me keep an eye on all the players in an operation, as well as giving me free HBO. What about you: will you play as Hero or Commander?